


All But Blood

by Tassos



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: AU: Alternate Gender Norms, Alternate Universe - Canon, Arranged Marriage, Community: trope_bingo, Gen, Vignette, Wordcount: 500-1.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-14
Updated: 2013-10-14
Packaged: 2017-12-29 10:21:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1004253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tassos/pseuds/Tassos
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Morgana learns of her arranged marriage, to a dragon lord no less, and she is not happy about it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All But Blood

The heavy doors of the council chamber echoed as they groaned open, followed by the strident footsteps that had every head in the room turning.

"What is the meaning of this?" Morgana held up a parchment crumpled in her hand. Ygraine didn't have to read it to know what it said.

"Leave us," she told her councilors. Morgana fixed her with heated glare that did not waver while the ladies and lords gathered their papers and made their way to the doors. Ygraine knew that there would be heated words to follow. Morgana was as headstrong as her father, and twice as volatile. Ygraine remained seated on the edge of her chair and calmly returned her gaze, a fixed wall for the storm that was Morgana to batter against. 

When at last the guards closed the council room doors, leaving the two of them alone, Ygraine spoke. "That is an invitation for you to come discuss a marriage proposal. For after supper. Had I known you would respond like a spoiled child I would not have done you the courtesy of forewarning you of the subject."

"This is the first I'm hearing of _any_ marriage negotiations and you expect me to -"

"I _expect_ you to behave like a princess of the realm." Ygraine stood abruptly and fixed Morgana with her own sharp gaze that had made more than one blundering lady bow her head. Morgana at least closed her mouth, though she did not bend. A part of Ygraine was proud that she wasn't easily cowed, but the larger part of her that was both mother and queen wanted to shake some sense into the girl. 

"You knew this day would come, Morgana," she said. "Marriage is a sacrifice we make for the kingdom. It's an alliance, the most important you will forge. I shouldn't have to remind you that we have enemies on our borders that would be more than happy to raid our lands."

Morgana clearly didn't want to give an inch, but even she could deny the truth, not after she herself had led her knights against Cenred's bandits, took first and last watch after Odin's assassination plot had shaken the castle. She might wear finely woven red skirts today but that didn't mean she wasn't as comfortable in chain mail. 

Ygraine waited her out, and at last Morgana took a breath, raised her chin, and asked politely, "Who is it that made their suit?"

"Balinor, the dragon lord, on behalf of his son."

"Dragon lord?!" rose Morgana's outraged voice. "They're nothing but charlatans! And commoners! How could you even consider it?" 

Ygraine couldn't help her indelicate snort. "Dragon lords used to rule these lands before the High Priestesses grew hungry for power. There is nothing common about them."

"You say that, but I will be the laughing stock of the court. The five kingdoms will never respect me marrying so far outside my station."

"I despair of your education," Ygraine muttered. She must speak to Geoffrey about just how much of her tutoring Morgana was skipping away from. "Balinor is lord to the Great Dragon," she said slowly. "His son will inherit that lordship _and_ he will be bound to you when he does. No one will laugh at you; they will fear you."

"I don't want to be feared. I want to be respected. But that will never happen when I'm hiding behind my husband's pet dragon." Morgana slashed at the air angrily, but she couldn't hide the emotion in her eyes, not from Ygraine.

"Oh, Morgana." Ygraine came around the table. At times she was too much Uther's child, proud and ever only seeing what she thought was weakness in herself. Ygraine took her hands in her own, not letting Morgana pull free, and tugged until her daughter looked at her. All her proud anger tried to hide the hurt and fear that she would be no more than a figurehead. Ygraine hated seeing that uncertainty on her face. She remembers being seventeen and facing that same fear on the eve of her own wedding.

"You won't be hiding," Ygraine told her. "You are incapable of hiding, and the people of Camelot know that. Do you remember the famine, when you went out every day to make sure each of your people received their fair rations? Or when the griffin was attacking the northern villages and you went out with your sword and your magic and you brought it down from the sky? The people see your love for them, and it commands loyalty. Your husband will see it too, and it will be at your word that mountains move."

Morgana's eyes were wet, but no tears fell, and Ygraine smiled, because the vapors men sometimes accused women of falling prey to were no weakness either. Her back straight, Morgana's return smile was small, but there. She had grown so tall, taller now than Ygraine, tall and strong this daughter of hers in all but blood.

Morgana took a moment to compose herself. "Will I get to meet him? This future dragon lord?"

"Yes," said Ygraine. "That is what I wanted to speak with you about. I've invited Balinor and his son to Camelot. They will arrive in a few weeks."

"What's he like? The son, I mean," Morgana asked.

"I don't know much about him," said Ygraine, gesturing toward the door. "Come, let us retire to my study and I can show you the letters. Balinor only said that he was close to you in age and that he had a great gift of magic."

"Magic?" Morgana was not impressed, but she only sighed heavily as she followed Ygraine. "I have magic, half our kingdom has magic, either druids or hedgewitches."

Ygraine laughed and tucked Morgana's arm into her own. "I think this Merlin might be a little more than a hedgewitch."

~*~


End file.
